Vindicare
by ChocolateCurlz
Summary: Founders. Best of friends, an unstoppable team brought together to create the greatest thing ever known to Muggles and Wizards alike... how can one seed of doubt destroy that? RowSalGodHel love tangle.


AN: My name does NOT start with J nor does it end with K Rowling. So… obviously…

Vindicare-Prelude: Burning Stones

_Rowena flung herself around the corner, holding her wand up high so she could navigate the dark corridors, even though the light from the fires outside was flickering through the windows. The school was a mess of horror and flames at the moment-violence and bloodshed raining down, brought on by cursed students and staff alike. And, if Helga was indeed correct, someone had summoned an army of Inferis, who where now storming through the school. In a bid to protect the small percentage of children that hadn't been infected by this sudden madness, Rowena was now scouting the halls and passageways. Swinging to a right right, there was a sudden flash of light from one of the off turning halls, and then the sounds of screaming. In a sweep of robes she swiftly ran to the source, only to see the Potter girl Mandas standing over another students twitching body, yelling her head off. _

"_Pro-professor!" She stuttered, seeing Rowena. "He attacked me! I couldn't do a thing but-"_

_Impatiently Rowena silenced her with a sharp gesture. "Enough, Potter! Go back to your common room and take the boy with you! Quickly!"_

_Mandas turned white and looked down at the boy stupidly, before her teacher saw and snapped-"NOW POTTER!" _

_Trusting that the girl wasn't the fool she acted, Rowena started to run again, yelling at any stray students to get to their common rooms or at the very least a lockable classroom. _

_Finally Rowena came to the top of the Great Stairs, looking down at the scene below her with a sense of despair. _

"_Why, Salazar?" She whispered, her wand sliding from her fingertips and falling onto the hall, slient amongst the screaming and the violence. Unable to contain it, the anger welling up inside of her exploded, her own scream-if only for a second-drowning out the horror of everything else. _

HHH

People had always complimented Rowena on her hair. It wasn't as if the rest of her wasn't worthy of praise, but it was always her hair that caught your attention.

Helga was jealous of Rowena's hair, the beautiful way it softly curled and waved, it a thick curtain of black silk. She-Rowena-was often angry with it, in that spiteful way she could get in. It never sat the way she'd want it to, she'd complain. But Helga envied it all the same.

Herself, well… Helga had inherited the Hufflepuff legacy of straight blonde locks. It wasn't long and bountiful like Rowena's, but rather it came to her shoulders and was thin and light. Rowena would scowl whenever Helga complained of this, and told her that she should be grateful that she didn't feel like she was carrying a heavy partridge on her head like Rowena often did whenever her pins and things stayed in and did their job.

"Hellie… Hellie… are you daydreaming again?"

Helga blinked and smiled up at her friend, who was peering down at her.

"I was telling you all about Ric and Zar's hiding from Elder Ferdiand's lessons and then I lose you again! Whatever do you think about?"

Shaking her head a little, Helga smiled. "Nothing, Rowena. I'm afraid I must have gone off on my own tangent… please, go on"

Rowena raised an eyebrow. "I've finished my story, and now I want to hear what yours is-Now don't be selfish and share it"

Nobody could ever call Helga selfish, for she was one of the sweetest girls anyone could ever hop to meet. Unlike temperamental Rowena, sagacious Salazar or even cocky-at-times Godric, she only ever thought about how the other person felt.

"Well… I was wondering how is it that your hair is always so lovely, Rowena, and how I came to be simply _cursed_ with the misfortune of having hair like mine and whether you'd-"

Serena, commonly known as Elder Gorth to the children, turned her back from the door of the library and smiled, pleased to see how well the girls got along. They, the Elders, rarely came out of their self-imposed exile to teach, and when they had in the past, it'd only been to the benefit of one family and their heir. Now, however…

It'd been Salazar's attorneys that had approached them first. The boy, at the age of six had been the sole survivor of the brutal murder of his family members by one of their own kin. Since his godfather and cousin Odonnis Ravenclaw was a ministry diplomat, the boy had been immediately housed with Odonnis's _then_ five-year-old daughter in the Ravenclaw nursery while a better choice was searched for. Soon after his seventh birthday, Salazar was sent to the Elders with a generous donation. After seeing the standard of learning the boy was achieving (and the whinings of his daughter), Odonnis sent Rowena along a year after. Determined not to be out done by either the Ravenclaws or the Slytherins, Lucas Gryffindor also sent his son-young Godric-along with a nicely sized pile of Galleons. The Hufflepuffs hadn't even thought of sending their darling daughter away-Helga was the youngest in a family of nine and the only girl. Her father travelled around the world for his job and his sales, and had always taken her with him. He couldn't bear to leave her behind, but seeing the sad dejected look on her little features pulled at his heartstrings and finally agreeing, he asked if the Elder's would take on yet another pupil.

Serena wouldn't of believed it if you told her that the Grand Elder would come out of the seclusion he valued so much and willingly teach these four little misfits. The Elders only taught when they could feel the hand of destiny near-how could a small merchant's daughter, a father's little princess, an orphan and the golden boy of his family ever hope to do anything grand at all?

When asked, the Grand Elder had just smiled, his eyes taking a misty quality as if dreaming. "I've seen it" He said. "The greatest thing that neither Wizard not Muggle has ever seen. And it will be they that brings it forth"

HHH

AN: My first HP fic! Whoo! I'm not too well versed in everything Potter, so be gentle…

And yes, I know it was short, but future chapters will be longer, promise!


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